Teenagers are often insufferable, and in my formative years I vividly recall my mother bestowing some invaluable advice that remains with me to this day.
After our umpteenth dispute over my lackluster grades, or talking back after breaking curfew, or whatever the hell it was, she looked me dead in my face and said, “You can’t be wrong and strong.”
When Snoop Dogg stared into his iPhone, called Gayle King a “funky dog-head bitch,” then doubled down on it by defending his explosive rant on The Rickey Smiley Morning Show, he was exactly that.
As were the legions of “girl dads” who hid behind keyboards, obtuse #IStandWithSnoop hashtags and reprehensible death threats, railing against King for exercising her integrity as an accomplished journalist.
Now, was I surprised by Snoop doing any of this shit? Nope. But imagine living in a world where a nigga who’s built his entire career off of misogynoir is upset about a black woman doing her damn job. You can’t make this shit up.
But clearly disgusted by her son’s affinity for being wrong and strong, Beverly Tate, Snoop’s own mother, apparently checked the 48-year-old rapper for tearing down yet another black woman.
On Wednesday, the man who once taught us that bitches ain’t shit but hoes and tricks took to Instagram to offer his mea culpa.
“Two wrongs don’t make no right. When you’re wrong, you gotta fix it,” he began. “So with that being said: Gayle King, I publicly tore you down by coming at you in a derogatory manner based off of emotions… Me being angry at questions that you asked. [I] overreacted and should’ve handled it way different than that. I was raised better than that, so I would like to apologize to you publicly for that language that I used and calling you out of your name and just being disrespectful.”
He continued, “I didn’t mean for it to be like that. I was just expressing myself for a friend that wasn’t here to defend himself. A lot of people look up to me and they love me and they appreciate me, so I want to let them know that anytime you mess up, it’s OK to fix it, it’s OK to man up and say that you’re wrong. I apologize. Hopefully, we can sit down and talk privately. Have a good day.”
He captioned the clip, which you can watch below, with the following: “Had a talk with my momma thank u mamma 💕🌹 2 wrongs don’t make it right time to heal 🙏🏽💙 @gayleking Peace ☮️ n love Praying for u and your family as well as Vanessa and the kids 🙏🏽✨🌹 🕊”
King has yet to comment publicly on Snoop’s peace offering, but I can’t help but feel that this all could’ve been avoided had he taken a moment to actually listen to the same black women he routinely tears down ahead of time.
Because being wrong and strong is never a good look. Ask my mother.